Nixonland. Part 26

Then they pulled out the howitzer. Buchanan came up with the idea: "Let Agnew go after these guys!"

The idea came together quickly. The president had a booking at the Midwestern Regional Republican Conference in Des Moines for November 13. The White House sent the president's regrets and said the vice president would speak instead. Buchanan drafted the text, Nixon edited it, and Dean Burch respectfully asked the three networks to air it live. Agnew, acting his part admirably, claimed to be surprised at the presence of the network cameras. Then he said the whole speech had been his idea.

"Monday night, a week ago," it began, "President Nixon delivered the most important address of his administration, one of the most important of the decade.... For thirty-two minutes, he reasoned with a nation that has suffered almost a third of a million casualties in the longest war in its history.

"When the president completed his address-an address that he spent weeks in preparing-his words and policies were subjected to instant a.n.a.lysis and querulous criticism. The audience of seventy million Americans-gathered to hear the president of the United States-was inherited by a small band of network commentators and self-appointed a.n.a.lysts, the majority majority of whom expressed, in one way or another, their hostility to what he had to say.... of whom expressed, in one way or another, their hostility to what he had to say....

"It was obvious that their minds were made up in advance.... One network trotted out Averell Harriman for the occasion. Throughout the president's address he waited in the wings. When the president concluded, Mr. Harriman recited perfectly....

"Every American has a right to disagree with the president of the United States, and to express publicly that disagreement. But the president of the United States has a right to communicate directly with the people who elected him, and the people of the country have the right to make up their own minds and form their own opinions about a presidential address without having the president's words and thoughts characterized through the prejudices of hostile critics before they can even be digested" by "this little group of men who not only enjoy a right of instant reb.u.t.tal to every presidential address, but more importantly, wield a free hand in selecting, presenting, and interpreting the great issues of our nation." They became, "in effect, the presiding judge in a national trial by jury."

In actual fact that was how the founders, brave men, intended it. Indeed, they reveled in it. A querulous American press-far more opinionated, nasty, and partisan than anything Nixon would have to suffer-predated American government. Thomas Jefferson used to lay out the most scabrous articles about him in the White House antechamber where emissaries of foreign potentates waited to be received by him. They would stride forth, waving the pages: Mr. President, are you aware of the things they're writing about you? Mr. President, are you aware of the things they're writing about you? Jefferson found nothing so delightful. Yes, he would reply, and they're welcome to say it, and there's nothing I can do about it. This is what America means. But Agnew argued these gentlemen of the media were a usurping cabal. Jefferson found nothing so delightful. Yes, he would reply, and they're welcome to say it, and there's nothing I can do about it. This is what America means. But Agnew argued these gentlemen of the media were a usurping cabal.

"A raised eyebrow, an inflection of the voice, a caustic remark dropped in the middle of a broadcast, can raise doubts in a million minds about the veracity of a public official or the wisdom of a government policy.... What do Americans know of the men who wield this power?...Little, other than that they reflect an urbane and a.s.sured presence, seemingly seemingly well-informed on every important matter.... To a man, these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City.... Both communities bask in their own provincialism, their own parochialism.... They talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoint." That viewpoint, what was more, did " well-informed on every important matter.... To a man, these commentators and producers live and work in the geographical and intellectual confines of Washington, D.C., or New York City.... Both communities bask in their own provincialism, their own parochialism.... They talk constantly to one another, thereby providing artificial reinforcement to their shared viewpoint." That viewpoint, what was more, did "not represent the view of America. That is why such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the president's address-and how the networks reviewed it. represent the view of America. That is why such a great gulf existed between how the nation received the president's address-and how the networks reviewed it.

"The American people would rightly not tolerate this kind of concentration of power in government. Is it not fair and relevant to question its concentration in the hands of a tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government?"

Howitzering the messenger that controlled the means of interpretation: This. Just. Wasn't. Done. It was another Nixon administration dare that proved brilliant.

Americans took in an increasingly unpleasant world through their TV screens. Agnew told them the fault was not in the world, but in our networks. It was they who "made 'hunger' and 'black lung' disease national issues overnight," who "have done what no other medium could have done in terms of dramatizing the horror of war," who were even responsible for the outrages of the Chicago convention: "Film of provocations of police that was available never saw the light of day, while the film of the police response which the protesters provoked was shown to millions."

Agnew said he wasn't calling for "censorship." But Walter Cronkite called it "an implied threat to freedom of speech." His boss, Frank Stanton, called it "an unprecedented attempt by the vice president of the United States to intimidate a news medium which depends for its existence upon government license." Julian Goodman of NBC said it was an attempt to "deny to TV freedom of the press." David Brinkley, urbane and a.s.sured, launched a snooty riposte: "If I went on the air tomorrow night and said Spiro Agnew was the greatest American statesman since Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Hamilton...the audience might think I was biased. But he wouldn't." Syndicated columnists Braden and Mankiewicz heard n.a.z.ism in the speech-the "theme that America's press and television is controlled by a small group of Jews in New York and Washington." Amba.s.sador Harriman himself said it "smacked of totalitarianism."

Be that as it may, it worked. "Everyone is scared about licenses," a network executive explained to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. "You can't have a television station without a government license, and you can't have a network without stations." Two days later, the peaceniks gathered in Washington, D.C., for the New Mobilization's "march against death." Conspicuously absent were live network cameras. "You can't have a television station without a government license, and you can't have a network without stations." Two days later, the peaceniks gathered in Washington, D.C., for the New Mobilization's "march against death." Conspicuously absent were live network cameras.

They missed a radiant spectacle. At four thirty in the afternoon, in front of the White House, forty thousand pilgrims took turns reciting the names of dead Americans and destroyed hamlets, one after another, until eight thirty the next morning. Each placed a card with the name of one dead in a coffin. The coffins were borne in procession to the Washington Monument to a rolling drum cadence. Three hundred thousand souls took in the subsequent rally. Arlo Guthrie, the folksinging star of Alice's Restaurant, Alice's Restaurant, spoke last, and most briefly: "I don't need to say anything. It's all been said before." He said it as nine thousand troops were stationed to guard the city, and marines manned a machine-gun nest on the Capitol steps. spoke last, and most briefly: "I don't need to say anything. It's all been said before." He said it as nine thousand troops were stationed to guard the city, and marines manned a machine-gun nest on the Capitol steps.

"We love America enough to call her away from the folly of war," proclaimed Senator McGovern, who had stuck with the protest after Senators Kennedy and Muskie dropped out when officials warned of plans for "serious violence." McGovern said the cause was too desperate to abandon: "We meet here today because we cherish our flag."

Not everyone did. A small group of street fighters chanting, "War, war, one more war! Revolution now!" had tried and failed to break through the line of marshals to rush the White House-ringed by a barricade of empty city buses, just in case. The morning before the vigil began, crazies had marched down Const.i.tution Avenue forty abreast chanting, "One, two, three, four, we don't want your f.u.c.king war!" and carrying signs such as STOP THE TRIAL STOP THE TRIAL and and BEAT NIXON INTO PLOUGHSHARES, BEAT NIXON INTO PLOUGHSHARES, then stoned the Justice Department and bashed in the windows with red flags. Helmeted demonstrators pulled down Old Glory and replaced it with the Vietcong banner. The rioting was subdued with tear gas-leading Congressmen Edwin W. Edwards of Louisiana to complain to Washington's police chief that "gunfire was not only justified but required." Three days earlier, in the middle of the night, a New York collective had bombed the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building. The day before that-Veterans Day-they bombed the empty offices of Chase Manhattan Bank, Standard Oil, and General Motors. "Corporations have made us into insane consumers," their manifesto p.r.o.nounced. "Spiro Agnew may be a household word but it is the rarely seen men like David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan, James Roche of General Motors, and Michael Haider of Standard Oil who run the system behind the scenes." then stoned the Justice Department and bashed in the windows with red flags. Helmeted demonstrators pulled down Old Glory and replaced it with the Vietcong banner. The rioting was subdued with tear gas-leading Congressmen Edwin W. Edwards of Louisiana to complain to Washington's police chief that "gunfire was not only justified but required." Three days earlier, in the middle of the night, a New York collective had bombed the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building. The day before that-Veterans Day-they bombed the empty offices of Chase Manhattan Bank, Standard Oil, and General Motors. "Corporations have made us into insane consumers," their manifesto p.r.o.nounced. "Spiro Agnew may be a household word but it is the rarely seen men like David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan, James Roche of General Motors, and Michael Haider of Standard Oil who run the system behind the scenes."

It advanced Richard Nixon's preferred story line admirably: that the peopled who vigiled and the people who rioted were working hand in glove.

A series of newspaper articles that began running November 15 lent credibility to a counternarrative of the radicals: that the Vietnam War was turning the United States into something akin to n.a.z.i Germany. The article headlined "Lieutenant Accused of Murdering 109 Civilians" appeared, not in the New York Times New York Times or or Washington Post, Washington Post, but in several midtier papers that subscribed to a small outfit called the Dispatch News Service. The author, Seymour Hersh, couldn't interest the big papers in what he had found. but in several midtier papers that subscribed to a small outfit called the Dispatch News Service. The author, Seymour Hersh, couldn't interest the big papers in what he had found.

He reported that in the awful, b.l.o.o.d.y wake of the Tet Offensive, on March 17, 1968, the leader of a platoon that had suffered heavy casualties, one William L. "Rusty" Calley, twenty-six years old, received orders to retaliate at a hamlet called My Lai. "The orders were to shoot anything that moved," Hersh reported. That would be Calley's court-martial defense: he was only following orders, that he was told the village was an enemy stronghold. "None of the men interviewed about the incident denied that women and children were shot.... The area was a free fire zone from which all nonViet Cong residents had been urged, by leaflet, to flee. Such zones are common throughout Vietnam." A second article recorded the recollections of an eyewitness who had refused to partic.i.p.ate: "It was point-blank murder and I was standing there watching it.... I don't remember seeing one military-age male in the entire place, dead or alive." A second installment ran November 20. It noted death toll estimates from 170 to 700 and that 90 percent of the company had partic.i.p.ated, and that the army only began investigating a year later after receiving a whistle-blowing letter by a former GI. One paper, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, got hold of army photographs of the ma.s.sacre, and ran them with that second article. got hold of army photographs of the ma.s.sacre, and ran them with that second article.

That night, Spiro Agnew gave a speech in Montgomery, Alabama, at the state Chamber of Commerce dinner: "When three hundred Congressmen and fifty-nine senators signed a letter endorsing the president's policy in Vietnam, it was news.... Yet the next morning the New York Times, New York Times, which considers itself America's paper of record, did not carry a word. Why?" (He lied; actually the which considers itself America's paper of record, did not carry a word. Why?" (He lied; actually the Times Times ran three articles on the resolution in three days.) The papers were "grinding out the same editorial line"-as if they were ran three articles on the resolution in three days.) The papers were "grinding out the same editorial line"-as if they were Pravda. Pravda. "The day when the network commentators and even the gentlemen of the "The day when the network commentators and even the gentlemen of the New York Times New York Times enjoyed a diplomatic immunity from comment and criticism about what they say is over!" Agnew got several standing ovations. enjoyed a diplomatic immunity from comment and criticism about what they say is over!" Agnew got several standing ovations.

The next Hersh article, on November 25, featured an interview with one of the partic.i.p.ants, a twenty-two-year-old coal miner's son from Indiana named Paul David Meadlo: "There must have been about 40 or 45 civilians standing in one big circle in the middle of the village," said Meadlo (who had his right foot blown off by a mine the day after the ma.s.sacre). "So we stood about 10 or 15 feet away from them.... Then he told me to start shooting them.... They didn't put up a fight or anything. The women huddled against their children and took it. They brought their kids real close to their stomachs and hugged them, and put their bodies against their children and took it." That night, Meadlo told the same story in an interview on the CBS News. Hersh started getting more and more phone calls from GI's describing atrocities they'd witnessed themselves, going back to 1965.

Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings stood up on the Senate floor and asked whether all GIs guilty of "a mistake of judgment" in combat were "going to be tried as common criminals, as murderers"; that Meadlo was "obviously sick"; that a sick man "ought not to be exposed to the entire public."

The senator was contradicted by another interview, on CBS, with a member of the squad who said he had fired 320 bullets at civilians, and that he had been following orders, too.

It was the last Wednesday in November-in time to ruin a million family Thanksgiving dinners. "During World War II, Calley would have been a hero," a father in northern California growled. "Yeah, if you were a n.a.z.i," snapped his teenage son.

The New York Times New York Times reported from Meadlo's hometown of New Goshen, Indiana: "How can you newspaper people blame Paul David?" "Things like that happen in war. They always have and they always will. But only just recently have people starting telling the press about it." He was "a very nice boy." The idea that ma.s.sacring innocents was something only the enemy did was built into the rhetorical architecture of the war effort. People struggled to make sense of it all. Spiro Agnew suggested a way: blame the press. A b.u.mper sticker began appearing: reported from Meadlo's hometown of New Goshen, Indiana: "How can you newspaper people blame Paul David?" "Things like that happen in war. They always have and they always will. But only just recently have people starting telling the press about it." He was "a very nice boy." The idea that ma.s.sacring innocents was something only the enemy did was built into the rhetorical architecture of the war effort. People struggled to make sense of it all. Spiro Agnew suggested a way: blame the press. A b.u.mper sticker began appearing: SPIRO IS MY HERO. SPIRO IS MY HERO.

The next week the My Lai pictures ran in color in Life: Life: a boy with a stump where his leg should be; a pile of adult and infant corpses lying on a dusty road like broken toys; a woman splayed in rape position-did she have a head? a boy with a stump where his leg should be; a pile of adult and infant corpses lying on a dusty road like broken toys; a woman splayed in rape position-did she have a head? Time Time's essay began with an epigram from the president's speech, "North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that," and said these "Everymen, decent in their daily lives...called in question the U.S. mission in Viet Nam in a way that all the anti-war protesters could never have done." National Review, National Review, reflecting upon that, cited the atrocities of Sherman's march to the sea: "Does reflecting upon that, cited the atrocities of Sherman's march to the sea: "Does Time Time conclude that the Union, therefore, should have been permitted to disintegrate?" Ronald Reagan and George Wallace were among the right-wingers who said the press was profiteering off the story, and that the photographs were "unverified." conclude that the Union, therefore, should have been permitted to disintegrate?" Ronald Reagan and George Wallace were among the right-wingers who said the press was profiteering off the story, and that the photographs were "unverified."

Man-on-the-street interviews began appearing. My Lai "was good," an elevator operator in Boston said. "What do they give soldiers bullets for-to put in their pockets?" A Los Angeles salesman: "The story was planted by Vietcong sympathizers and people inside this country who are trying to get us out of Vietnam sooner." A woman in Cleveland: "It sounds terrible to say we ought to kill kids, but many of our boys being killed over there are just kids, too." Cleveland was where the photos had first run in a paper. The Plain-Dealer Plain-Dealer fielded calls like "Your paper is rotten and anti-American." In a poll by the Minneapolis paper, half the respondents were certain the reports were faked. fielded calls like "Your paper is rotten and anti-American." In a poll by the Minneapolis paper, half the respondents were certain the reports were faked.

On December 8 Richard Nixon faced the press for the first time in months. He said America's Vietnam "record of generosity, of decency, must not be allowed to be smeared and slurred because of this kind of incident. That is why I am going to do everything I possibly can to see that all of the facts of this incident are brought to light and that those who are charged, if they are found guilty, are punished."

Clement Haynsworth had just been turned back by the Senate 5545 under a cloud of corruption allegations-the first rejection of a Supreme Court nomination in forty years-but the press was kindly in not even asking Nixon about it. The next day, he traveled to New York to be honored by the National Football Foundation for his ability to "confront our problems with steadfastness." Read the plaque, "Courage in the true tradition of our sport has marked your career." Responded Nixon, "The compet.i.tive spirit, the ability to lose and come back, to try again...the character and drive of our youth is an essential characteristic."

Nixon's motorcade had been forced to detour through a slum to avoid an a.s.sa.s.sination threat. At his hotel, Nixon harangued Haldeman about how much he hated big cities, as outside the Waldorf-Astoria, five thousand youth showed their character and drive by chanting, "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh will surely win," dodging counterprotesters with signs reading I LIKE SPIRO I LIKE SPIRO and and PEACE WITH HONOR, THE SILENT MAJORITY PEACE WITH HONOR, THE SILENT MAJORITY and cops who chased them in and out of a glistening row of Park Avenue Christmas trees. and cops who chased them in and out of a glistening row of Park Avenue Christmas trees.

Another ma.s.sive rock festival made the papers; at this one, on a sun-parched drag strip outside Altamont, California, h.e.l.ls Angels beat hippies to death with pool cues. In Chicago, on December 4, seven Black Panthers "staged a wild gun battle with police"-according to the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune-in a West Side apartment. "We were met with a shotgun volley" while serving a warrant, the police sergeant said; "our men had no choice but to return fire." On December 9 the prosecution rested in the Chicago conspiracy trial.

Also that week indictments were handed down in the mysterious summer shootings in the Hollywood Hills. It turned out not to be the b.l.o.o.d.y fallout of some sort of jet-set love triangle after all. The murderers, allegedly, were a "nomadic band of hippies," the New York Times New York Times reported, led by a thirty-four-year-old guru, Charles Manson, who had picked them up cruising Haight-Ashbury during that 1967 Summer of Love. Four other members of the "Manson Family" were implicated in three other murders. "He played the guitar, he sang," an outsider to the group observed. "He preached love and peace and all that." A female member of the cult-he called them his "slaves"; they referred to him as "G.o.d" and "Satan"-explained his appeal: "You're brought up to believe that you can't have s.e.x unless you're married. Here girls could do whatever they wanted." The reported, led by a thirty-four-year-old guru, Charles Manson, who had picked them up cruising Haight-Ashbury during that 1967 Summer of Love. Four other members of the "Manson Family" were implicated in three other murders. "He played the guitar, he sang," an outsider to the group observed. "He preached love and peace and all that." A female member of the cult-he called them his "slaves"; they referred to him as "G.o.d" and "Satan"-explained his appeal: "You're brought up to believe that you can't have s.e.x unless you're married. Here girls could do whatever they wanted." The Times Times's California correspondent Steve Roberts now reported the victims had been preyed upon by a hippie gang who "lived a life of indolence, free s.e.x, midnight motorcycle races, and apparently blind obedience to a mysterious guru," and recast the Tate-Polanskis as almost just another affluent suburban couple. The December 19 Life, Life, above a picture of a wild-eyed Manson, called it "The Love and Terror Cult." "Could Your Daughter Kill?" asked above a picture of a wild-eyed Manson, called it "The Love and Terror Cult." "Could Your Daughter Kill?" asked Los Angeles Los Angeles magazine. magazine.

The Silent Majority had Richard Nixon to protect them. He would bring the My Lai renegades to justice-if indeed that ma.s.sacre had even happened. He would keep our daughters from killing us. CBS News ran a poll after his December 8 press conference: Nixon's approval rating was 81 percent-up thirty points in two months. In the South, it was 86. Fifty-eight percent now said they wished America had never gotten involved in Vietnam. But then, Richard Nixon said he wished that, too. Sixty-nine percent, in a third poll, agreed that antiwar protesters were "harmful to public life." Nixon was the peacenik they could trust.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

The Polarization SIX OF THE ELEVEN TOP-RATED TV TV SHOWS IN SHOWS IN 1969 1969 WERE WERE B BOB H HOPE SPECIALS. But Bob's annual Christmas special from Vietnam took on a harder edge this year. During their round at Burning Tree Country Club, the president had lined up the comedian as a soldier for positive polarization, and just before the New Mobe protest, Hope sent out a letter to every senator: But Bob's annual Christmas special from Vietnam took on a harder edge this year. During their round at Burning Tree Country Club, the president had lined up the comedian as a soldier for positive polarization, and just before the New Mobe protest, Hope sent out a letter to every senator: "How about a big cheer for the great USA?

"A committee has been formed to salute a work of national unity and I am proud to serve as their national chairman. There are millions of Americans, of all ages, who make up the Silent Majority and we are urging them to partic.i.p.ate in activities from coast to coast to display unity in America.

"I certainly hope you will accept my invitation to serve as a co-chairman. Please wire your confirmation to me at Hollywood, California, so that we may unite in this program together.

"Warmest regards, "Bob 'FOR A WEEK OF NATIONAL UNITY' Hope."

Unity was in the eye of the beholder. Bob's specials had always flown the standard of patriotic rea.s.surance. ("Bob wasn't born-he was woven by Betsy Ross," a friend told Time Time in a 1967 cover feature.) Now the hunger for rea.s.surance was desperate. That was what gave Hope, who started his tour for the first time with a command performance at the White House, his new right-wing edge. in a 1967 cover feature.) Now the hunger for rea.s.surance was desperate. That was what gave Hope, who started his tour for the first time with a command performance at the White House, his new right-wing edge.

Bantering with Romy Schneider, the German ingenue who costarred in Woody Allen's What's New, p.u.s.s.ycat? What's New, p.u.s.s.ycat? Hope called Allen "the little spider monkey with the falsetto voice." He called Hope called Allen "the little spider monkey with the falsetto voice." He called Laugh-In Laugh-In "fruitcake galore." He dipped into drug humor to reach his live audience; "GI's in Vietnam High on Hope's Marijuana Jokes," the "fruitcake galore." He dipped into drug humor to reach his live audience; "GI's in Vietnam High on Hope's Marijuana Jokes," the New York Times New York Times reported from Vietnam December 23. But none of those jokes made it into the broadcast when it ran in January. That would have soured the story they were telling-that the old, good, pure Betsy Ross America that only talked about s.e.x with a wink and nudge was still going as strong as ever. reported from Vietnam December 23. But none of those jokes made it into the broadcast when it ran in January. That would have soured the story they were telling-that the old, good, pure Betsy Ross America that only talked about s.e.x with a wink and nudge was still going as strong as ever.

But jingoism was a difficult sell these days. At First Division Headquarters, the camera panned over the crowd, the traditional mocking banners (WELCOME, BING CROSBY!)-but many weren't wearing shirts; most had s.h.a.ggy hair; some wore mustaches and necklaces with garish medallions. Tom Sawyerfaced Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon, an icon of the new square chic-he brought his fraternity pin along on Apollo 11-did a question-and-answer session. The NBC cameras trained upon a blond nurse in hippie sungla.s.ses asking him in all earnestness "when you're going to take the first woman to the moon." Armstrong answered with leering innuendo. Bob chimed in with a joke about diet-conscious ladies: "I'm sure they'll all go when they find they can go up there and be weightless." Meanwhile, the camera found a banner out in the crowd: a peace symbol and the circle-and-cross emblem of women's liberation.

The show ended, as always, with a sentimental Bob Hope exhortation. This year it folded in clumsy damage control for My Lai: "The numbers of them who devote their free time, energies, and money to aiding Vietnamese families and caring for orphans would surprise you. Or maybe it wouldn't. I guess you know what kind of guys your brothers and the kids next door are.... They need our full support.... They deserve our backing to a man, and our prayers. It's the least you can do. Good night."

Betsy Ross was taking on a partisan edge, too. Eighteen million Reader's Digest Reader's Digest subscribers received detachable flag decals inside the special February 1969 "America in Transition" issue. Thirty-one million more wrote in to request one. The left-wing folksinger John Prine responded, in song, upon "digesting subscribers received detachable flag decals inside the special February 1969 "America in Transition" issue. Thirty-one million more wrote in to request one. The left-wing folksinger John Prine responded, in song, upon "digesting Reader's Digest Reader's Digest in the back of a dirty book store," that waving flags didn't "get you into heaven anymore-they're already too crowded from your dirty little war." Five years after Lyndon Johnson was elected on a platform of consensus, every conceivable cultural expression fell to one or another side of the American ideological divide. in the back of a dirty book store," that waving flags didn't "get you into heaven anymore-they're already too crowded from your dirty little war." Five years after Lyndon Johnson was elected on a platform of consensus, every conceivable cultural expression fell to one or another side of the American ideological divide.

Smart businessmen figured out ways to sell to both sides. The Christmas season's most brilliant entrepreneur was surely the guy who invented the Spiro Agnew wrist.w.a.tch. Hipsters bought it as a kitschy screw-you to his admirers. The Silent Majority bought it as a screw-you to his detractors. Soon TV producer Norman Lear would have a new hit show, All in the Family. All in the Family. The sympathetic character was supposedly the long-haired, liberal son-in-law. The racist, know-nothing father was the b.u.t.t of the jokes. Lear never dreamed what would happen next: Archie Bunker was embraced as a hero by the very people the show was meant to lampoon. The sympathetic character was supposedly the long-haired, liberal son-in-law. The racist, know-nothing father was the b.u.t.t of the jokes. Lear never dreamed what would happen next: Archie Bunker was embraced as a hero by the very people the show was meant to lampoon.

To be taken seriously as a voice of cultural authority you had to somehow straddle the cultural canyon. The nation's flagship Panglossian weekly, Time, Time, had chosen as its 1966 Man of the Year "not just a new generation, but a new kind of generation." In 1969 they excused that generation's LSD-taking as a near-religious sacrament. The editors had placed a had chosen as its 1966 Man of the Year "not just a new generation, but a new kind of generation." In 1969 they excused that generation's LSD-taking as a near-religious sacrament. The editors had placed a Time Time sort of bet: that they could frictionlessly ease new sensibilities into the mainstream, the better to sh.o.r.e up consensus. This year they made a different bet by naming as "Men and Women of the Year" the "Middle Americans"-"a state of mind, a morality, a construct of values and prejudices and a complex of fears." sort of bet: that they could frictionlessly ease new sensibilities into the mainstream, the better to sh.o.r.e up consensus. This year they made a different bet by naming as "Men and Women of the Year" the "Middle Americans"-"a state of mind, a morality, a construct of values and prejudices and a complex of fears."

Middle Americans were those whom "p.o.r.nography, dissent, and drugs seemed to wash over...in waves, bearing some of their children away." They loved the moon shot-"a victory purely accomplished." "'This,' they will say with an air of embarra.s.sment that such a truth needed be stated at all, 'is the greatest country in the world. Why are people trying to tear it down?'" And though Time Time couldn't bring itself to admire all their enthusiasms (Middle Americans liked Spiro Agnew, the editors claimed, only "to some extent"), it celebrated Richard Nixon for reflecting, "like many Middle Americans," a "contradictory mixture of liberal and conservative impulses." He was "pursuing not so much a 'Southern strategy' as a Middle American strategy." "His draft reforms, inst.i.tuting selection by lottery, brought a new equity to the Selective Service system." He'd ended U.S. production of biological weapons, begun the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union. He was "allowing some Southern school districts more time to formulate their desegregation plans," but chose as his chief justice Warren Burger, whose Supreme Court "unanimously rejected the delays": perfect equipoise. couldn't bring itself to admire all their enthusiasms (Middle Americans liked Spiro Agnew, the editors claimed, only "to some extent"), it celebrated Richard Nixon for reflecting, "like many Middle Americans," a "contradictory mixture of liberal and conservative impulses." He was "pursuing not so much a 'Southern strategy' as a Middle American strategy." "His draft reforms, inst.i.tuting selection by lottery, brought a new equity to the Selective Service system." He'd ended U.S. production of biological weapons, begun the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union. He was "allowing some Southern school districts more time to formulate their desegregation plans," but chose as his chief justice Warren Burger, whose Supreme Court "unanimously rejected the delays": perfect equipoise.

Some of the Middle Americans Time Time profiled were bitter. Richard W. Paul, forty-three, a white-collar worker at GE in Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, said, "I'm angry because I keep getting kicked around. I'm getting squeezed by the Urban Coalition, these bankers, everybody who thinks they are doing these poor people a favor by moving them into somebody else's backyard-as long as it isn't their backyard." But the package ended with a feature on nine former high school football stars in a small Arizona town who joined the marines together on Independence Day, 1966. "Only three of Morenci's nine Marines made it back alive.... Yet none of the three is really angry about the war." profiled were bitter. Richard W. Paul, forty-three, a white-collar worker at GE in Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, said, "I'm angry because I keep getting kicked around. I'm getting squeezed by the Urban Coalition, these bankers, everybody who thinks they are doing these poor people a favor by moving them into somebody else's backyard-as long as it isn't their backyard." But the package ended with a feature on nine former high school football stars in a small Arizona town who joined the marines together on Independence Day, 1966. "Only three of Morenci's nine Marines made it back alive.... Yet none of the three is really angry about the war."

Perfect equipoise: a perfect fantasy. A more realistic American tableau was unfolding in Chicago, where the conspiracy trial was at its entropic height.

During jury selection, the questions the defense wanted the pool to be asked included "Do you know who Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix are?" and "If your children are female, do they wear bra.s.sieres all the time?" In a pretrial hearing Judge Hoffman described the "intent" standard by which the defendants were to be judged: "The substance of the crime was a state of mind." (That was just the way Time Time had defined Middle America: a state of mind.) To that standard, the defense was glad to accede. When the twelve jurors turned out to be middle-cla.s.s and middle-aged, except for two girls in their early twenties, Leonard Weingla.s.s, the lead defense attorney, moved for a mistrial, claiming his clients weren't being judged by a jury of their peers-which would have to be chosen also from people had defined Middle America: a state of mind.) To that standard, the defense was glad to accede. When the twelve jurors turned out to be middle-cla.s.s and middle-aged, except for two girls in their early twenties, Leonard Weingla.s.s, the lead defense attorney, moved for a mistrial, claiming his clients weren't being judged by a jury of their peers-which would have to be chosen also from people not not drawn from the voter rolls, because blacks, the young, dropouts, and misfits were not well-enough represented on them. drawn from the voter rolls, because blacks, the young, dropouts, and misfits were not well-enough represented on them.

The government had selectively indicted to display a cross-section of the monstrous personages rending the good order of American civilization: the older guru (David Dellinger); two long-haired freaks (Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin); the by-any-means-necessary Negro (Bobby Seale); two SDS militants (Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis); two radical young faculty members (a chemistry professor, John Froines, and a sociology professor, Lee Weiner, who were supposed to have planned a bombing). The prosecutors warned on TV that the defendants might walk into court the first day naked.

That didn't happen, though when court adjourned on New Year's Eve defendant Froines and his girlfriend did pa.s.s out autographed nude posters of themselves.

The jury was sequestered every minute they were outside the Federal Building: if states of minds were on trial, even the cultural air was prejudicial (some stories they missed: the Mobilization, the Silent Majority speech, the Moratorium, the rise of Spiro Agnew, the second moon shot, the My Lai ma.s.sacre). They received a respite from cabin fever the day after Christmas when they were treated to a Disney on Parade Disney on Parade show. But even that was prejudicial: the monkeys in the show. But even that was prejudicial: the monkeys in the Jungle Book Jungle Book number were go-go girls. number were go-go girls. Alice in Wonderland Alice in Wonderland was done up in psychedelic patterns. was done up in psychedelic patterns.

Jerry Rubin called his indictment "the Academy Award for protest." Judge Julius Hoffman seemed to relish the notion. "Tell me something," he asked New York Times New York Times reporter Tony Lukas, who had called up to ask for press credentials. "Do you think this is going to be the trial of the century?" reporter Tony Lukas, who had called up to ask for press credentials. "Do you think this is going to be the trial of the century?"

Outside, trial marshals confiscated spoons, books, compacts, nail clippers, attache cases-and two pistols. Defense sympathizers waited half the night in line for a spot in the gallery; the judge gave seats instead to Chicago socialites (one hippie who survived the gauntlet leapt up in the spectators' gallery during a defense argument to cry "Right on!" and was swarmed so badly a witness thought marshals might have broken some bones). When Bobby Seale's family managed to get seats, Judge Julius Hoffman summoned a marshal and had these strange people with bushy Afros removed. The jury wouldn't be able to watch his child's and wife's reactions when Seale was bound and gagged like a slave. They weren't there on November 5, 1969, either, when Judge Hoffman sentenced Seale to an unprecedented four years in prison for sixteen counts of contempt of court and severed his case from the rest, turning the Chicago 8 into the Chicago 7. Reporters made a mad dash for the phones. The courtroom marshals unpinned their badges, put them into their pockets, and scoured the jammed courtroom for anything else sharp, fearing an outbreak of hand-to-hand combat.

The next day a defense lawyer argued the four-year sentence was illegal and asked the judge to explain himself. Judge Hoffman replied, "I have known literally thousands of what we used to call Negro people and who are now referred to as black people, and I have never heard that kind of language emanate from the lips of any of them." That was the day Bob Hope sent out his letter to senators "FOR A WEEK OF NATIONAL UNITY."

Judge Julius J. Hoffman was a strutting, little bantam c.o.c.k of a man. On the first day of jury selection he read out the indictment to the jury pool like a nineteenth-century thespian. Defense lawyer William Kunstler objected. Judge Hoffman boomed, "Motion denied!" "Motion denied!" and said he'd never apologize for "the vocal facilities the Lord hath given me." When one of his young law clerks was told to prepare a denial of the defendants' motion to see the wiretap logs and replied, "But, Judge, that's not fair," citing the plain letter of the law, the old man flew into a rage that awed his clerk-who was told not to return to work after his vacation. and said he'd never apologize for "the vocal facilities the Lord hath given me." When one of his young law clerks was told to prepare a denial of the defendants' motion to see the wiretap logs and replied, "But, Judge, that's not fair," citing the plain letter of the law, the old man flew into a rage that awed his clerk-who was told not to return to work after his vacation.

Federal judge selection was supposed to be random. But in Chicago, the fix was always in. In big mob cases, the state always angled to argue before Judge Hoffman: he always decided against the defendant and made the prosecuting attorneys look like heroes. He "is the bane of do-gooders who would give every b.u.m a second chance, and a third and a fourth and a fifth," Chicago's American Chicago's American said. He was also a self-hating Jew who took willful pleasure in misp.r.o.nouncing his fellow Jews' names (Weingla.s.s: "Finegla.s.s," "Weintraub," "Weinruss," "Weinrob") and wouldn't let one witness wear a yarmulke in court ("Take off your hat, sir"). He popped a vein when Abbie Hoffman called himself his "illegitimate son," but hated David Dellinger ("Derringer," "Dillinger") most of all: he was a WASP who'd surrendered privileges the judge so dearly wished to possess. Hoffman was especially taken aback when one of the defendants informed him that the plaque for the Northwestern Law School cla.s.sroom named after him had been ripped from the wall. said. He was also a self-hating Jew who took willful pleasure in misp.r.o.nouncing his fellow Jews' names (Weingla.s.s: "Finegla.s.s," "Weintraub," "Weinruss," "Weinrob") and wouldn't let one witness wear a yarmulke in court ("Take off your hat, sir"). He popped a vein when Abbie Hoffman called himself his "illegitimate son," but hated David Dellinger ("Derringer," "Dillinger") most of all: he was a WASP who'd surrendered privileges the judge so dearly wished to possess. Hoffman was especially taken aback when one of the defendants informed him that the plaque for the Northwestern Law School cla.s.sroom named after him had been ripped from the wall.

"The plaque plaque?"

"Apparently while the board of trustees feels affection for you, the student body does not."

The defense was determined to put the war on trial and the defendants' lifestyle on proud display (the Boston 5 had "sat like good little boys called into the princ.i.p.al's office," Dr. Spock had pointed out, and were railroaded nonetheless). The Chicago defendants were determined to show why their state of mind was morally superior. superior. The seventy-four-year-old they called Mr. Magoo was a hanging judge, hired to grease the rails for a conviction that would only be overturned on appeal. It was a show trial. So why not put on a show? The seventy-four-year-old they called Mr. Magoo was a hanging judge, hired to grease the rails for a conviction that would only be overturned on appeal. It was a show trial. So why not put on a show?

The prosecution presented its case first. Their witnesses were undercover infiltrators. Once, when a witness was called just as one of the defendants exited a side door, the rest of the Chicago 7 braced themselves: was one of their own their own a police spy? (Actually, he was just going to the bathroom.) a police spy? (Actually, he was just going to the bathroom.) One prosecution witness was simultaneously a member of the executive committee of Veterans for Peace, the Chicago Peace Council, the New Mobilization Committee to End the War-and the Chicago Police Department Red Squad. The people most useful in the movement, radicals often learned too late, were the ones later revealed to be spies; being paid for their time by the government, they were the most avid "volunteers." Another had enrolled in the Northeastern Illinois State College SDS and had led a group that pushed Northeastern's president off a speaker's platform. (The most militant activists, radicals also discovered too late, were often police-agent provocateurs.) He testified that Rennie Davis said their plan to recruit for Chicago was to "lure them here with music and s.e.x"; at the meeting where he claimed he heard that, he himself had suggested disabling army jeeps with grappling hooks. A third prosecution witness was a college newspaper reporter hired as a spy by the Chicago's American Chicago's American columnist Jack Mabley. A fourth had worked as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin's dirtbag motorcycle-gang "bodyguard." A fifth was a policewoman who'd dressed for her work in Lincoln Park every day in white hippie bell-bottoms carrying a .38 Colt in her bag. columnist Jack Mabley. A fourth had worked as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin's dirtbag motorcycle-gang "bodyguard." A fifth was a policewoman who'd dressed for her work in Lincoln Park every day in white hippie bell-bottoms carrying a .38 Colt in her bag.

This witness, Officer Barbara Callender, testified blushingly, "Every other word was that F-word."

Cross-examination: "Haven't you ever heard that word in the station house?"

The government objected to the line of questioning. The objection was sustained. Part of the prosecution's strategy was to establish that the defendants were obscene. Ten days later, when another Red Squad member testified, he said he'd told a newsman "to turn the censored censored cameras around because of that civilian brutality." His side believed it was obscenity to say [censored] without blushing; the other believed it was obscenity during an evil war to save your shame for mere words: the war was the obscenity. (A joke going around the New Left: a policeman tells a protester to come back after she has removed the obscenity from her cameras around because of that civilian brutality." His side believed it was obscenity to say [censored] without blushing; the other believed it was obscenity during an evil war to save your shame for mere words: the war was the obscenity. (A joke going around the New Left: a policeman tells a protester to come back after she has removed the obscenity from her f.u.c.k THE WAR f.u.c.k THE WAR placard and she returns with one reading placard and she returns with one reading f.u.c.k THE. f.u.c.k THE.) The prosecutors, U.S. Attorneys Richard Schultz and Thomas Aquinas Foran, were perfectly cast. Schultz was so ploddingly literal-minded he could call the most obvious Yippie put-ons devious incitements to riot. Foran was a Democrat who said he had been a closer friend of the late Bobby Kennedy's than Tom Hayden had been. In his summation he spoke of his empathy for the kids, who "feel that the lights have gone out in Camelot." But "these guys take advantage of them. They take advantage of it personally, intentionally, evilly, and to corrupt those kids, they use them, and they use them for their purposes and for their intents. And you know what are their purposes and intents?...This is in their own words: to 'disrupt.' To 'pin delegates in the Convention hall.' To 'clog streets.' To force the use of troops. To have actions so militant the Guard will have to be used.... 'Tear this city apart.' 'f.u.c.k up this convention.'...'We'll lure the McCarthy kids and other young people with music and s.e.x and try to hold the park.'"

The prosecution's aim was to reduce a complex stew of motives, interests, approaches, and personalities to a concentrated, unified plot. They said David Dellinger, the Gandhian who had little direct role in Chicago, was only pretending to be a pacifist and was really the rioting's "chief architect" ("Oh, bulls.h.i.t. That is a complete lie," Dellinger shouted. "Did you get that, Miss Reporter?" Judge Hoffman replied, and revoked Dellinger's bail). Prosecutors said the ham-handed self-defense training in Lincoln Park was combat training. Patrolman Frapolly described a meeting in which he claimed he heard plans to throw burning flares at the cops.

Mr. Foran: "Were any of the defendants present?"

The Witness: "Yes. Weiner and Froines were at this meeting. So was Abbie Hoffman."

Mr. Foran: "Do you see Mr. Hoffman here in the courtroom?"

The Witness: "Yes, I do."

Mr. Foran: "Would you step down and point him out, please."

The Witness: "Mr. Hoffman is sitting with the leather vest on, the shirt-he just shot me with his finger. His hair is very unkempt."

The hippies' hippie-ness was on trial; style was a battleground. Abbie Hoffman, asked why they lured innocent youth to Chicago with s.e.x and rock bands, replied, "Rock musicians are the real leaders of the revolution." Posture was a battleground. When Judge Hoffman admonished William Kunstler not to slouch on the lectern designed by the Federal Building's distinguished architect Mies van der Rohe, Abbie replied, "Mies van der Rohe was a Kraut." He added that the courtroom was a "neon oven"-thus deploying his Madison Avenue brilliance in the service of the defendants' pet theory that America was becoming n.a.z.i Germany. Pencils, even, became a battleground: "primly squared off and neatly sharpened beside a few neatly stacked memos on the prosecution table," the Evergreen Review' Evergreen Review's John Schultz wrote; "askew and gnawed and maybe encrusted with a sliver of earwax," a proud part of the "unholy clutter," on the defense table. (When Abbie Hoffman, a very hard worker, took the stand, he said, "Work is a dirty word instead of is a dirty word instead of f.u.c.k f.u.c.k is a dirty word.") is a dirty word.") Humor was a battleground most of all.

The judge fancied himself a rapier wit. But when the defense table laughed at at him, or him, or with with the defense-as when Abbie and Jerry showed up in judicial robes-he made sure the court reporter got it in the record, for in the courtroom laughter wasn't appropriate. Which jurymen laughed when was how both sides kept score. the defense-as when Abbie and Jerry showed up in judicial robes-he made sure the court reporter got it in the record, for in the courtroom laughter wasn't appropriate. Which jurymen laughed when was how both sides kept score.

Based on that calculus, when the prosecution rested on December 9, the day after the Nixon press conference that earned him a snap 81 percent approval rating, movement sympathizers predicted a hung jury. That prediction led to a debate in the defense camp. Tom Hayden said that, since they weren't going to be convicted, they could best get on with the revolution if they rested their case without mounting a defense, ending the affair in a mistrial. Others-Abbie, Jerry-said the trial was was the revolution. The Yippies won: they would use their defense to introduce "Woodstock Nation"-the t.i.tle of Abbie's new book-to America. They would fight through the jungles of TV. the revolution. The Yippies won: they would use their defense to introduce "Woodstock Nation"-the t.i.tle of Abbie's new book-to America. They would fight through the jungles of TV.

They spoke at colleges, women's clubs, and churches to raise money for their defense, to warm receptions. At a tony synagogue in suburban Highland Park, Illinois, fourteen hundred turned out to hear them. At universities they were treated like the Beatles. At a University of Chicago rally, Rennie Davis announced he would continue fighting the way he was fighting even if they put a pistol to his head: "How can you be a young person and have any other position?"

Thomas Aquinas Foran would have said the same thing, if asked about his own position.

It seemed an auspicious week to indict an Establishment gone mad. As Wednesday night, December 3, 1969, became Thursday morning, December 4, what the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune had called the "wild gun battle" at Black Panther headquarters in a West Side apartment building left two Panthers, twenty-one-year-old leader Fred Hampton and lieutenant Mark Clark, twenty-two, dead. Lewis Koch, the young New Left producer for the local NBC affiliate, smelled a rat in the cops' claim they were met with "a shotgun volley." He'd seen film of the cops leaving the building: smiling, embracing, exulting as if they'd won a football game-not the behavior of men who had just survived an ambush. He put Panther Bobby Rush on the afternoon news the next day, who called it cold-blooded murder and invited viewers to the apartment to see for themselves. The had called the "wild gun battle" at Black Panther headquarters in a West Side apartment building left two Panthers, twenty-one-year-old leader Fred Hampton and lieutenant Mark Clark, twenty-two, dead. Lewis Koch, the young New Left producer for the local NBC affiliate, smelled a rat in the cops' claim they were met with "a shotgun volley." He'd seen film of the cops leaving the building: smiling, embracing, exulting as if they'd won a football game-not the behavior of men who had just survived an ambush. He put Panther Bobby Rush on the afternoon news the next day, who called it cold-blooded murder and invited viewers to the apartment to see for themselves. The Chicago Daily News Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko took him up on his offer. The morning that the conspiracy-trial prosecution rested its case, Royko published a column called "The Hampton Bullet Holes." According to the police account, Royko wrote, "miracles occurred. The Panthers' bullets must have dissolved in the air before they hit anybody or anything. Either that or the Panthers were shooting in the wrong direction-namely, at themselves." Royko had examined the building with a ballistics expert, who identified at least seventy-six bullets coming in, including twenty-four in the wall near Hampton's bed-and not a single one coming out. columnist Mike Royko took him up on his offer. The morning that the conspiracy-trial prosecution rested its case, Royko published a column called "The Hampton Bullet Holes." According to the police account, Royko wrote, "miracles occurred. The Panthers' bullets must have dissolved in the air before they hit anybody or anything. Either that or the Panthers were shooting in the wrong direction-namely, at themselves." Royko had examined the building with a ballistics expert, who identified at least seventy-six bullets coming in, including twenty-four in the wall near Hampton's bed-and not a single one coming out.

Chicago cops failed to secure the crime scene. People lined up around the block to tour the open-and-shut evidence. Years later it came out that the FBI COINTELPRO had provided Chicago cops with the floor plans of the apartment, and an FBI infiltrator had slipped secobarbital in Fred Hampton's drink the previous evening to make it easier to murder him in his bed. Such revelations would only have confirmed what the Chicago 7 defense already knew: the "justice system" wasn't a system of justice, "law and order" was a cover for state-sponsored crime.

Those same days the last cop indicted for crimes during convention week was on trial. The jury absolved him of beating a twenty-year-old hitchhiker after only an hour of deliberation. The prosecution was so convincing, the defense so obviously false, the shocked judge implored of the foreman, "Are you certain, not guilty?"

The Silent Majority was practicing jury nullification, just as the Chicago 7 opened their defense.

The first defense witness was a supervisor at a candy factory. He displayed slides he had taken of police chopping their way through a crowd, kicking kids when they were down-without provocation, he said. The next day he was fired from his job. And any pretense to a straight defense was abandoned. The prosecution said the Chicago 7 had lured lambs to slaughter with music and s.e.x. So the Chicago 7's defense would be...music and s.e.x.

Jacques Levy, director of Oh! Calcutta! Oh! Calcutta! (the off-Broadway play where the cast took off their clothes), Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Country Joe McDonald were all called to the stand. ("Dr. Leary, what is your present occupation?" "I am the Democratic candidate for governor in California." "Doctor, can you explain what a psychedelic drug is?") Judy Collins broke out into a chorus of "Where have all the flowers gone?" (Judge Hoffman: "We don't allow singing in this court.") William Kunstler presented folksinger Phil Ochs with exhibit D-147, the guitar he'd used to perform "I Ain't Marching Any More" at the Festival of Life. He, too, tried and failed to sing. (the off-Broadway play where the cast took off their clothes), Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Country Joe McDonald were all called to the stand. ("Dr. Leary, what is your present occupation?" "I am the Democratic candidate for governor in California." "Doctor, can you explain what a psychedelic drug is?") Judy Collins broke out into a chorus of "Where have all the flowers gone?" (Judge Hoffman: "We don't allow singing in this court.") William Kunstler presented folksinger Phil Ochs with exhibit D-147, the guitar he'd used to perform "I Ain't Marching Any More" at the Festival of Life. He, too, tried and failed to sing.

The following colloquy ensued: Abbie Hoffman had "led the crowd in a chant of 'f.u.c.k LBJ,' didn't he?"

"Yes, I think he did...."

"Now, in your plans for Chicago, did you plan for public fornication in the park?"

Allen Ginsberg had been in Chicago helping calm things with his Buddhist chants. Judge Hoffman had once been an ally of Ginsberg's. He'd ruled in 1960 that the avant-garde Chicago literary magazine Big Table Big Table wasn't obscene, noting that William S. Burroughs's wasn't obscene, noting that William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch Naked Lunch was intended "to shock the contemporary society in order perhaps to better point out its flaws and weaknesses," quoting the was intended "to shock the contemporary society in order perhaps to better point out its flaws and weaknesses," quoting the Ulysses Ulysses decision on the subversive necessity of art. But that was a different age, when such nuances were possible. Now everyone had to choose a side. decision on the subversive necessity of art. But that was a different age, when such nuances were possible. Now everyone had to choose a side.

One day a clerk at Barbara's Bookstore in Old Town saw a middle-aged man pacing around. A member of the prosecution team, he asked, "Do you have any of Allen Ginsberg's books?" She went to hunt some down. He said, "Could you hurry up? The future of the country may depend on this."

Later that day, on the stand, Ginsberg explained, "I was chanting a mantra called the Mala Mantra, the great mantra of preservation of that aspect of the Indian religion called Vishnu the Preserver."

Thomas Aquinas Foran leafed through one of his newfound literary treasures.

Mr. Foran: "In The Empty Mirror, The Empty Mirror, there is a poem called 'The Night Apple'?" there is a poem called 'The Night Apple'?"

The Witness: "Yes."

Mr. Foran: "Would you recite it for the jury?"

The Witness: THE N NIGHT A APPLELast night I dreamedof one I lovedfor seven long years,but I saw no face,only the familiarpresence of the body;sweat skin eyesfeces urine spermsaliva all oneodor and mortal taste.

Foran, sarcastically: "Could you explain to the jury what the religious religious significance of that poem is?" significance of that poem is?"

Ginsberg, earnestly: "If you could take a wet dream as a religious experience, I could. It is a description of a wet dream, sir."

Defense witness Linda Hager Morse was a pretty Quaker girl from Philadelphia who had won the Kiwanis Decency Award and first marched for peace on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1965. She was now a revolutionary. The defense wanted her to talk about why it was necessary to overthrow capitalism. The judge ruled that out of order. The prosecution, however, was glad to pick up the thread in cross-examination, and the judge was glad to let them. What Morse said encapsulated the strangeness of the last four years of American history. One part sounded quite like Lyndon Johnson's Great Society speech: "My ultimate goal is to create a society where everyone is fed, where everyone is educated, where everyone has a job, where everyone has a chance to express himself artistically or politically, or spiritually, or religiously" (Johnson: "a society of success without squalor, beauty without barrenness, works of genius without the wretchedness of poverty" "a society of success without squalor, beauty without barrenness, works of genius without the wretchedness of poverty"). The other part couldn't have been further afield from Johnson's consensus bromides. a.s.sistant DA Schultz posed the question: "You practice shooting an M1 yourself, don't you?"

The Witness: "Yes, I do."